Question about getting from FCO Airport to Rome city centre

[OpalFruitsMakeMyMouthWater]

I recently booked a week to Rome next summer - just myself (female) and my daughter (who will be 18 when we go). Our flight out was at 11am from our local airport (10 minutes away from our house) to Rome, via Schipol in Amsterdam (1 hr layover). I deliberately booked this flight (as part of a package) as neither of us like getting up ridiculously early for a flight. Same coming back.

The airline have cancelled the flight! They’ve booked us on the 6am flight but have also given us the option of booking the 17:40 flight. I’d prefer the 17:40 flight but it means we won’t land in Rome until 22:45. Our hotel is near to the Vatican City. We had planned to get the express train to Rome Termini and then the metro to near the hotel (in daylight hours). The express train doesn’t run that late and I don’t want to be wandering around (lost) at night. First time in Rome!!

Does anyone have any suggestions?

No other flight between 6am and 10 am.

I’m not sure why the airline would arrange the onward flight with only a 40 minute transfer time. It takes a while to get off the plane and then it could be late in.

As you live so close to the airport, I would definitely be taking the early morning flight. You can chill once checked in and sleep on the plane.

During the day, taking one of the taxis outside the airport is fine. Late at night I’d be booking a transfer taxi that meets you with a sign at arrivals. Your hotel could probably arrange this for you but we had a 5:30am journey to do whilst there and booked Rome Limousine Shuttle, same as the poster above.

Your first drive through Rome in daylight is magical!

I don’t know much about layover times and how that all works (I presume if it’s the same airline, they will wait for the connecting passengers?) but Schiphol is a large airport to navigate. I recall us walking for miles trying to find our gate, breaking into a power walk wiggle and ending in a sprint!

Looks like I may be able to fly out from another airport for better times 🙂

@AchillesAndPatroclus Answering your question, no the onward flight does not wait for transferring passengers in 99% of cases (the odd exception when there’s a significant number moving from flight A to flight B maybe). Different airports have different transit procedures, I remember years back Gatwick I think had a security check that was just for transit pax, so you didn’t have to queue with the masses. 40 minutes is too short by any standards though.

I think the minimum recommended transfer at Schiphol is 40 minutes if Schengen zone to Schengen zone. If you are coming from UK you will want longer. I think it's not a bad airport to transfer through but I never risk minimum connection times as it's too easy to go wrong. I have a vague recollection of being able to get a fast track type pass if you have a short connection so maybe see if that exists still.

50 minutes minimum for a UK flight. So, not even that. I’ve called the booking agent and the flight team are going to see if I can get the earlier flight from Newcastle. 2.5 hour transfer time with that one and it gets into Rome just after 16:00

If its KLM then watch out as they are notorious for bad customer service in the event of connection missing - even if its a technical issue ( so their fault) they can rebook you 2 days later leaving you in Amsterdam . For get the convenince of flight times - cancel and get yourself a direct flight .

Yes, it’s KLM 😞

Wish I’d gone for a direct flight from Newcastle!

40 mins at Schipol isn't nearly long enough, you can spend that amount of time in tbe passport control queue.

I know. I know it’s not long enough. We wouldn’t need to go through security but passport control can take ages. I know there would be a high risk of us missing the flight to Rome. Hopefully, we will get it changed.

Taxi, especially in Rome with all the narrow streets where hotels can be hard to find.